The president and vice president of the Birmingham Board of Education will meet with the two law firms the board has on retainer to possibly renegotiate hourly fees, the board decided in a work session.

Phyllis Wyne and Virginia Volker will discuss the hourly rates -- higher than what many larger districts in the state pay --- with Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay, and Waldrep, Stewart & Kendrick, and ask them to lower their fees.

But Witherspoon pointed out to board members in a recent memo that the firms' hourly rates -- between $200 and $275 an hour, depending on the law firm and the lawyers' experience -- was higher than those paid by the Mobile County, Huntsville and Jefferson County school systems.

Birmingham paid $1.1 million in legal fees to the two firms in fiscal 2010, and $1.2 million in fiscal 2009. This year, hiring in-house counsel has reduced the amount paid to the outside firms. The board spent nearly $300,000 from September 2010 to February 2011, a six-month period under the new arrangement.

Volker said after she and Wyne meet with the firms, they will report back to Witherspoon. "I think they will be more than willing to work with us on the rates," she said.